TRIVANDRUM, December 28, 2011 : Sharjah-based Pravasi Bandhu Welfare Trust has called for housing projects exclusively for Non-Resident Keralites in all taluk headquarters in Kerala to make shelter affordable to the low and middle income group expats. In an open letter to Chief Minister on the eve of the Global NRK Meet to be held in here, Trust chairman K V Shamsudheen said that NRKs were spending a major portion of their earning on housing. “If the state government comes forward to build multi-storey houses with common facilities, it will not only control lavish spending by the NRKs but also reduce the pressure on land, which is scarce in the State”, he said. He said the lavish spending by NRKs and their kin back home had left 95 per cent expatriates in the Gulf without any saving to look after their families when they return home. Shamsudheen said that a survey conducted by the Trust in 2001 found that only 5 per cent NRKs had financial resources to support their families after they return.
